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“Who treadeth now upon my bones and waketh me from slumber sweet?”
Katsum halts in her steps, her eyes drawn up to the face of the dragon’s corpse. She watched its eyes flash to life, burning red and sparkling with promise of power. An essence of aether fell from his jaws to the air before her. The aether molded to the visage of a dragons head, roaring with such rage, she flinched.
“Thou hast forgotten the face of the lord of Silvertear. Remember now, mortal, and fear me.” The aetherial face of Midgardsomr reared back and roared even more ferociously this time, and Katsum moved to draw her sword. Before she could pull it free from its scabbard though, she felt a burning sensation around her neck and she gasped. Her hands flew up to the necklace hiding under her armor, feeling her aether being drawn into it as a ghostly form of another dragon appeared beside her. This shimmering, foggy dragon hissed and answered Midgardsormr’s roar with his own, a warning that was clear to all who heard it.
“What is this? Hmmm… How curious…” The elder dragon drew back his jaws, and quieted. The dragon that circled Katsum quieted too and vanished, the burning and draining of aether fading and Katsum dropped to her knee, her breathing heavy as she tried to catch her breath.
After all this time, she gets to see him again, yet he leaves without any explanation or reason. No words to be spoken between them or any companionship at all. Just an appearance that drains her energy that could kill her if it stayed long enough and then he was gone. Katsum didn’t understand this. Why wouldn’t he talk to her? It was like every story she had ever been told about the dragons was wrong…and she didn’t understand why.
The glowing face of Midgardsormr disappeared in a flurry of sparks, returning to the jaws of the dragon’s corpse, “By Her gifts - and his presence, hast thou earned a moments reprieve. Silent though he may be, I recognize his soul as one of mine own.” Midgardsormr hummed thoughtfully, and Katsum felt his gaze upon her as she struggled to stand back on her feet, “Speak, mortal, and I shall listen.”
Katsum took a deep breath and her stoic expression returned, her tongue moving to speak in the Dragon’s tongue rather than the common language, “(Hail Midgardsormr, Father of Dragons, Guardian of Silvertear Lake, and Bane of the XIVth Legion, I am Katsum Almor, Defender of Eorzea and Warrior of Light. I was sent here to confirm a prophecy that watcher of the stars spoke of as the waning of the Dragon’s Star foretold your resurrection.)”
“Thou speaketh my people’s tongue so easily. How strange. Speak as normal, mortal, as I do not care to hear mine own language spoken by a mortal’s voice,” He seemed to ponder for a moment, “And Guided by a star…? Heh heh heh. Indeed, thou canst see thy prophecy spoke true.” Midgardsomr hissed lowly, “My people have heard the song. Ishgard shall burn.”
Katsum narrowed her gaze thoughtfully, “I…I don’t understand…” She shook her head, “All I have ever heard is so different then what I hear now. All those stories I’ve ever been told…are any of them true?” She looked up into the dragon’s gaze, “Please, tell me what has happened. Where I hail from, dragons are revered as guardians. As friends…yet all I have heard recently has made those stories seem untrue. But why? Why is this war still being fought after…after all this time?”
Midgardsomr did not answer right away, and she felt him watching her.
“Strange mortal,” He mused, “Sons must answer for their father’s misdeeds.” He growled lowly, “Though a thousand years may pass, and a thousand more after, we do not forget. We do not forgive.”
“Then…then why does he stay with me? Why did he save us? Why was he there to build the kingdom I grew up in? Why did he rise against the chorus rather than join it?” She raised a hand to her neck again, and spoke with earnest, “I know nothing about him, not even his name, and yet all I have ever heard was that he saved us and protected us from the wyrm’s wrath…was all of that wrong…?”
“Foolish child. If thou dost not even remember thy savior’s name, then thy people did not truly care for my kind, no reverence for mine son.”
Katsum’s eyes widened in shock, then she grimaced and narrowed her gaze, “So you would have this bloodshed continue? Let this war that kills thousands on both the side of man and dragon alike?”
“Just as thou art loyal to thy loved ones, I am loyal to my children, mortal. We are not different in that regard,” He hissed in reply, “Seven children did I sire. One now singers of retribution, and I rise to join in the chorus.” Katsum opened her mouth to speak, but the dragon snarled, “If thou does not know of the truth behind the war, then thou hast no right to speak of what should be, foolish mortal child!”
Katsum bit her tongue, her retaliation dying on her lips. He was right. She had no right to speak her thoughts on a matter of which she did not know the truth of. And she had never thought of it as such but…why else would the dragon’s name have been lost to history unless…unless her people had come to not care to remember the past as it was.
“Thou art powerless to silence us, mortal. Yet thou shalt not live to labor in vain. Thy reprieve is at an end.” Midgardsormr growled as if he was poised to strike, drawing Katsum’s attention as she reached again for her sword.
Suddenly, a shield of light enveloped her, and she felt her body freeze at the feeling.
Midgardsormr hissed, “Hmph. Trickery is thy shield. This frail creature is not gifted, but chosen…not by one, but two.” The Father of Dragons growled quietly, “Harken to me, Hydaelyn! I remember…and I consent.”
The shield of light fell and Katsum stood up straight again, shaking herself a little.
“Fear not, mortal…I shall not harm thee…such is my promise,” Katsum blinked, curiosity filling her mind. A ball of light appeared again in the jaws of the dragon before it shot like an arrow down at her. She had no time to flinch or defend herself as it struck through her chest. She grimaced and squeezed her eyes closed, waiting for the pain, but she felt none. Instead, she felt something disappear, like a weight being lifted, or a cloth being removed from her soul. It was a strange sensation, yet there was no pain like she had expected, just that loss of something that she could not put her finger on.
“Heh heh heh,” Midgardsormr chuckled lowly, “Mayhaps you think me an oathbreaker?”
Katsum found herself kneeling on the ground again, trying to catch her breath. She looked up at the dragon and gasped, “Why…I know not what you did but…it did not hurt me…so why would I think as such.”
“Hmmm…Strange child, hast thou people’s stories taught you such reverence for mine kind that thou trust in mine own words so easily?”
She frowned, “It was your word…and it was true…so yes. I trust it…”
He hummed in wonder and in thought, “Thou art a curious one…Yet still know that if thou comest to harm, it shall be by another’s hand, not mine.”
“What was it…that you did then?”
“I did but strip thee of thy mistress’s feeble blessing.”
Katsum’s eyes widened, rising to her feet shakingly, “But-…but how?! Why?!”
“Thou didn’t profit much by Her grace, but no more. If thou only survived this long because of Her blessing, then thou doth not deserve such titles as ‘Warrior of Light’, nor the soul of my lost son as thy companion.”
Her fist tightened; as if she needed something else to question herself about. She already questioned her right to the crown when it had been given to her, questioned her right to wear the necklace after she fled the kingdom, and questioned why Hydaelyn had chosen her to grant her strength and watch over her. She believed that all was the will of the Savior, but she still questioned it…even when she knew she shouldn’t…
“Listen well, mortal,” His aether sparkled again, and from the blue sparks came the small form of a little green and pale pink scaled dragon. It floated down to hover before her, and it spoke with the voice of the elder dragon, “The covenant binds me to thee, and so I shall follow. I shall watch…listen…and wait. Fight and struggle, if it be thy will. Man hath ever coveted that which lie beyond his grasp. The history of thy people shows as such by the way thy former rulers fell.” Katsum again blinked in surprise. Perhaps there indeed was much she had to learn about her people and their past…
Midgardsomr growled, and the red light of the corpse’s eyes died away, the light disappearing with it. Yet his voice still rang in her ears, “I drink of Her body, and thence doth my own find new life. When it hath grown whole, the loyal and the penitent shall rejoice.”
She turned to the little dragon form of the Father of Dragons as he floated beside her, “Until then, I shall follow thee on thy journey, for thou hath captured my interest. The Dragonsong herald etch a beginning…and an end. How will thou see it end, o Warrior?”
Katsum looked away, down at her own hands, “Can you tell me…as that I do not know…so I shall not be ignorant to it anymore…”
Midgardsormr watched her, and answered, “If thou earns it.”
The little dragon sparkled and vanished in the aetheric essence and was gone from view, and Katsum was left to wonder was was true…and just how much of what she knew was lies, and what had been lost to time.
And if it as he says…than how much of who I am is built on lies…?
Her fist tightened again, a determined glare on her brow and her lips pressed into a thin line, “With or without Her blessing, I will know the truth. I will earn it from you. And if I must fight with my last breath, I will do it…for I have nothing else left to fight for but memory and the truth within it…you may hold me to that promise.”
She heard Midgardsormr whisper on the wind, “So I shall.”